This Just Happens Sometimes
by emotionsovrflow
Summary: Just a moment between Ophelia and Jules. Set sometime mid-to-early on in Season 1.


Jules had been at Ophelia's all day after coming over late in the morning for a tutoring session. Earlier in the week, Ophelia had pointed out that their cover story for why they were spending so much time together would only work for so long unless Jules showed actual improvement in her grades.

Jules had realized the truth in Ophelia's words and said she was free on Saturday, but only on the condition that they would fit in some extra self-defense and fight lessons as well. Ophelia had agreed and they had spent the better part of five hours split between studying and training.

After they threw in the towel, they had ordered pizza and parked themselves on the couch, determined to use very little brain or muscle power. A few minutes into their third straight episode of Bob's Burgers, Ophelia laughed at a joke and realized Jules hadn't made so much as a sound through the whole episode. An episode that Ophelia had thought to be particularly funny.

She glanced to her left to see if maybe Jules had fallen asleep, but she hadn't. She was awake, a blank expression on her face as she seemed to be vaguely staring at nothing in the general direction of the television. The room was dark, but Ophelia could see the light from the screen bouncing off the wet trail of tears streaked down Jules' face.

"Jules…" Ophelia started, quietly.

Despite Ophelia's gentle tone, Jules seemed startled and brought her sleeve up to wipe at her cheeks with the heel of her hand. She cleared her throat and managed a short, soft, "What?" in response.

"Is this ok?" Ophelia asked. "We can watch something else if you'd rather." It seemed pretty unlikely that anything about the cartoon would have made Jules emotional, but if it _was_ upsetting her, Ophelia would gladly turn it off.

"No," Jules said quickly. "It isn't the show." She moved to sit up straighter, pulling her legs out from where they had been tucked underneath her. "Sorry."

Ophelia, obviously concerned, asked "Did something else happen? Did Kennedy text you or something?"

Jules looked at her and shrugged. A long pause passed and finally, she answered, "I'm fine," as a tear escaped from the corner of her eye.

"Right," Ophelia said. "Yeah, sure. Except… You're crying." She immediately regretted the words. It seemed pretty unnecessary to inform a person that they were crying, but she was at a bit of a loss as to what else to say.

"It's not... nothing happened." Jules closed her eyes and cocked her head a few degrees, her eyebrows coming together in something of a grimace. "This just… happens sometimes. I can go if it's making you uncomfortable."

"No!" If she hadn't been paying attention, Ophelia could have missed the tiny waver in Jules' voice, the _almost_ catch when she had said she would leave. But Ophelia had been paying attention so she hadn't missed it. And something about it had made her hope that Jules never left.

"Don't go. I mean… You can stay as long as you want. I just didn't know if…" She stopped herself, not really wanting or needing to finish the sentence. "So, you're still good with Bob's Burgers?"

Jules' mouth twitched - it wasn't a smile, but it wasn't anything bad either - before nodding in the affirmative.

"Great! Fantastic!" Ophelia responded, probably just a touch too excited, and they both turned their attention back to the screen.

At least, most of Ophelia's attention was on the show they were watching, but she still kept half an eye on her friend. She hadn't ever seen anything quite like it before. Jules wasn't overcome by body-wracking sobs, she was just sitting there, a slow but steady stream of tears running down her cheeks. Every so often she would sniffle or raise a hand to wipe at her eyes, but otherwise, she was still and quiet.

Quiet, but continually crying.

Jules did seem to be paying a bit more attention to what they were watching now, but Ophelia couldn't quite get past how sad Jules seemed. The whole situation was upsetting Ophelia a bit, so she excused herself. She didn't want to bother her or question her about it anymore and wind up with Jules feeling like she needed to comfort Ophelia, so she thought it best to leave the room for a few.

In the bathroom, she stood over the sink, her hands propped on opposite sides, gripping it as she stared at her own reflection. Ophelia was a comforter, a fixer, a let-me-make-you-feel-better-er. But there was something about the way Jules had been curled into herself, the way she was just crying like that. No sound, no movement, just tears and sadness. She knew it wasn't something she could fix.

Looking herself in the eyes, she resolved that even if she couldn't fix this, she could make Jules feel as comfortable as possible. She grabbed the box of tissues off the back of the toilet and headed out of the bathroom. Before making her way back to the couch, she grabbed a blanket off the back of a chair in the corner of the room.

"Here." Ophelia held the box of tissues out to Jules who looked up at her in mild confusion for a moment before taking the offering. Once both her hands were free, Ophelia grabbed two corners of the blanket and flipped the slack of it out over the couch, letting it flutter down onto Jules' body. She tugged at the corners until it was more evenly splayed, grabbed some pizza from the box on the coffee table once she was satisfied with her handiwork, then sat back down on the couch next to her friend.

As she was chewing on her second bite from the slice, she felt Jules scoot a little closer and lay her head against Ophelia's shoulder. Ophelia's jaw stopped moving for a second as she laid her head down against Jules', her eyes closing as she took in a deep breath through her nose. It was only a moment, and soon she was picking her head back up and resuming her enjoyment of her pizza and the Belcher family.

"Thanks."

It was quiet, barely registering to Ophelia over the sound of her chewing and whatever song Gene was playing on his keyboard on-screen. But Ophelia heard it.

She finished chewing and swallowed, tossed her half-eaten slice of pizza onto the coffee table, then laid her head back down on Jules'. Some things were more important than pizza. Even if it was pepperoni.


End file.
